In the first tweet posted on behalf of Metallica, the attackers announced that the METAL token will improve fan interaction with the music group. Subscribers were told that the METAL developers are collaborating with the Ticketmaster service, so investors have access to discounts of up to 25% on concert tickets, as well as participation in an exclusive token distribution.
The hackers then posted another tweet announcing a partnership with payment service MoonPay, allowing users to purchase METAL tokens using credit and debit cards. Soon, MoonPay management denied the information, saying that they did not support the token. The MoonPay company warned subscribers: if you are offered METAL, then it is “not the master of the puppets from the Master of puppets song, but a master of fraud.”
MoonPay Safety Alert If someone is offering you a $METAL token, they are not the master of puppets – they’re the master of scams! Keep your keys safe and ride the lightning responsibly! https://t.co/y1j3RkfY0f
— MoonPay (@moonpay) June 26, 2024
Approximately 20 minutes after the hacker tweets were published, METAL's market capitalization exceeded $3 million. After reports of the hack appeared, the token collapsed by almost 100%, and the market capitalization fell below $90,000. Metallica has already restored access to its account and deleted the tweets, but has not commented incident.
In February, scammers hacked the account of the American company MicroStrategy on social network X, posting phishing links to MSTR tokens that the company itself allegedly developed. Total user losses exceeded $440,000.